Meeting with Environmental Project Officer Gary Papic

MEGI invited our local Environmental Project Officer Gary Papic to a meeting with the BoD and he agreed. We met on Wednesday August 6th, 2008 to discuss our concerns around the existing sewage treatment lagoons at the Resort Village of Manitou Beach (RVMB) and what, if any, plans are in the works to upgrade the facilities.

After sampling effluent discharge and discovering the elevated levels of bacterial strain, MEGI cleared away the hearsay and rumors and established that the lagoons are NOT performing adequately at peak periods. (Please see blog post dated July 24th "Sewage Lagoon Run-off Analysis & Interpretation")

The reason the group felt it was important to meet with Gary Papic at this time is because we have asked the RVMB to explain what, if any, plans are in place to address this issue and our questions have been met with little or no meaningful response.

It is our position that the general public and the rate-payers in particular have an interest in understanding what steps are being taken to deal with the sewage lagoons, as they are at the present over-flowing and discharging high bacterial counts directly into the waters of Little Manitou Lake. As a Board we have established a policy of “ZERO TOLERANCE” for potentially harmful inputs into the lake, as it is a “closed basin system”. What goes in the lake stays in the lake, except through evaporation. We wish to raise public awareness around this issue so that the administration of the RVMB understands clearly that the health of this fragile ecosystem must be a number one priority for them in any plans they make for future sewage lagoon upgrades or expansions.

Our conversation with Gary Papic was very productive and informative. To summarize:

The RVMB has engaged the services of a certified, professional engineering firm to drill core samples to establish the most preferable location for a proposed lagoon expansion. The preference will be given to a site that features a clay layer, as clay acts as a natural barrier that effectively seals effluent in place as it is treated by whatever means is put in place.

There are two types of sewage treatment: 1) aerobic , depth of about 5 feet, uses oxygen, does not smell bad, and 2) anaerobic, depth of between 12 to 15 feet, without oxygen, is ‘stinky’ treatment.

Sask Environment is encouraging communities that are experiencing growth to upgrade to the aerobic with oxygen, the aerobic system said to be ‘fauculative’.

Mr. Papic said that there is professional engineering consultation to the project at this time and that there is an opportunity for input from the stakeholders ie: the ratepayers at RVMB and other interested parties. The first phase of the consultation involves extraction of core samples out of the ground to find the most ideal location for the lagoon upgrade. The lagoons must be lined with a layer of about 8-12 inches thickness of clay. A naturally-occurring clay bed would be an ideal location to excavate the lagoon upgrade. It will be quite expensive to bring clay in to a site to physically line the lagoon with a layer.

The optimum choice to mitigate possibly harmful inputs into the Little Manitou closed basin system would be a “aerobic total evaporation pond with clay liner, pond no deeper than 5 feet and located outside of the watershed into the closed basin”.

According to Mr. Papic, “The treatment process (at Resort Village of Manitou Beach at this time) is marginal. It needs work.”

One of the triggers that motivates serious consideration for sewage lagoon and other upgrades is the fact that when there is any application for expansion (eg: home and/or commercial construction and the infrastructure upgrades that must be implemented prior to any such expansion) to government the application involves Sask Power, Sask Energy, Sask Environment and other agencies. The present infrastructure is incapable of supporting any further expansion so there is a stop work order from the agencies until such a time that any required improvements/upgrades are made.

Any response or clarification of a definite time-frame for the sewage lagoon upgrade/expansion from the administration of the Resort Village of Manitou Beach to the stakeholders through a public notice would be welcome and appreciated. At this time, this group is looking for tangible assurances from the Village that they are working within a certain time-frame to deal with this important issue.

In addition, this group is prepared to issue an update on our most recent sewage effluent run-off sample test results collected July 30th, 2008 as supplied by the Saskatchewan Disease Control Laboratory Environmental Services through Saskatchewan Health. Samples were taken at the convergence of the effluent with the lake water and also at about 50 feet off-shore at the same location. The results are respectively for Fecal Streptococci: 250 organisms per 100 ml of lake water, 80 organisms per 100 ml of lake water. The results are respectively for Total Coliform 34, 500 organisms per 100 ml of lake water, 10 organisms per 100 mls of lake water. The results respectively for E Coli are 31 organisms per 100 mls of lake water, <10 organisms per 100 ml of lake water.

According to Phillip Bailey, Director of Environmental Services with the Saskatchewan Disease Control Laboratory, the public is advised to avoid swimming at or near the place where the sewage lagoon effluent mixes with the lake water. However, the lake water is diluting the bacterial organism counts down to negligible counts 50' away from the discharge area. The sample taken 50' away from the discharge area demonstrates that the water is of typical lake-water quality and of little or no concern.

This group maintains that the waters of Little Manitou Lake are a precious resource and must not be contaminated with any amount of sewage lagoon effluent and that an alternative as outlined above would be a more ecologically prudent course of action for any lagoon expansion/upgrade.